2/4 ROH on Sinclair TV Taping results from Baltimore

– Crowd seems about the same as last month, 700-800, though GA looks a little less packed. They added about 120 seats to the hard camera side, where people were standing last month. Crowd not as hot as last month.

– Rhett Titus was spotted walking outside before the show, without crutches but with a limp. An audience member had a seizure, delaying the start time. Action began with some dark match at 7:10 PM EST. Right off the bat, they announce that the next night of tapings is March 3rd, and that the main event for the 10th Anniversary Show on the 4th will be Davey Richards & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Eddie Edwards & Adam Cole.

– Shelton Benjamin was suspended since he didn’t pay the fine. Main event of WGTT vs. Young Bucks [which wasn’t announced on the site] cancelled. Charlie Haas comes out and says he’ll fight one of the Briscoes. Briscoes out. Jim Cornette out. Makes Mark Briscoe vs. Haas with Jay Briscoe handcuffed to ringpost. Says he’s only making it because he knows Shelton’s at home in Houston.

– Steve Corino on commentary, desk moved to top right corner, next to fans behind the fence.

1. Kevin Steen vs. Andy Ridge. Steen wins a four minute hard-hitting squash with F5. Tries to piledrive Ridge but is slowed by Todd Sinclair, stopped by Corino. Jimmy Jacobs comes out, they brawl, and Jacobs makes an unanswered challenge. He calls himself and Steen the “two most evil men in ROH history.”

2. Eddie Edwards & Adam Cole vs. Matt Taven & Mike Mondo. Cole pins Taven in 6 min. Very good match. Mondo is the only one who won’t shake hands after the match, and he beats up Taven for doing so.

3. Main Event: Charlie Haas vs. Mark Briscoe. Jay is cuffed to post near me. Mark wins with rollup in 6 minutes. Two Angle slams after the match to Mark from Haas who stole the key back. Chair shot to Mark’s head, but Mark put up his hands. Charlie goes to announce booth and pay Shelton’s fine from last week and his fine from this week, says this was his plan all week.

5. Main Event for the ROH World Title: Davey Richards vs. Jay Lethal. Choreographed indie sequence of respect and parity! Tommaso Ciampa out with a chair, sits down at ringside 8 min in. Kyle O’Reilly out when Davey is distracted by Ciampa to calm Davey down. Truth Martini, Michael Elgin, and Roderick Strong out. Then Edwards and Cole. Strong was rooting for Jay. Big brawl on the outside. Cole was on the apron brawling with Elgin. Jay ran the ropes and collided with Cole, and Davey rolled him up afterward to retain the title. After the match, everyone from ringside brawled to the back but Ciampa. Richards and Ciampa yell, Ciampa wants a shot. Match got better as it went on, but not that great. Clusterfuck at ringside didn’t help match, but did help heat. Davey got visibly pissed at heel fans.

– Briscoes out, talking about 10th Anniversary Show match against Dem Girly Boys, the Young Bucks. Said $5000 check from House of Truth bounced. Then talked about 3/31 match with WGTT which is about much more than the titles.

– Now ten minute intermission – Strong vs. Edwards to come up. Dunno which show that promo was for, 2/25 or 3/3.

7. Tommaso Ciampa (with the whole Embassy, including Mia, who is no Maria) vs. Guy Alexander. Ciampa wins by ref stoppage in two brutal minutes due to repeated bare knees to the face. Ciampa cut a promo to straight into the camera during and after the match, challenging Lethal. I really like Ciampa.

8. Main Event: Roderick Strong (w/ Truth Martini) vs. Eddie Edwards; winner gets a World Title shot March 30th in Ft. Lauderdale. 18 min in, Cole comes out to stop Truth from interfering. Elgin comes out, and both Cole and Elgin take a suicide dive from Eddie. Strong pins Eddie after a loaded kick to the face. Skinny ref Paul Turner comes out to tell Sinclair about Strong’s cheating, and Turner counts three for Eddie after he hits the Die Hard on Strong, which inadvertantly knocked Sinclair down. Sinclair doesn’t agree with Turner’s pinfall, stands by his earlier decision instead. Kelly and Cornette come out and talk about the end of the match. This overbooked finish leads to the obvious Elimination Triple Threat announcement for 3/30. Davey comes out for a staring contest. Very good 19 min match but too many moves and way overbooked.

Taped for 3/10:

– Bobby Cruise has a ring that says DAD. Crowd was really up for the last match. Kind of louder than earlier. Kelly and Nigel cut to a video about the Blind Destiny Challenge, which goes unexplained to all of us. Small “what is that?” chant.

9. Blind Destiny Qualifier: Kenny King (w/ Rhett Titus) vs. Jay Lethal. Truth and Strong out early to watch. Lethal wins a good 8 minute match, though he was obviously tired. Strong and Truth are recruiting Jay. Entire front row on camera just left, moving the Liger fan up front.

10. Blind Destiny Qualifier: Adam Cole vs. Kevin Steen. Steen over big as a face. Steen wins a very good six minute match after kicking out of the lung blower and hitting the F5. Goes for the piledriver after the match, but Edwards comes out for the save, getting boos. Then dueling Eddie Edwards vs. Kill Steen Kill chants, the former mostly me by the end. Steen’s a very good wrestler. Not a ton of “this is wrestling” chants, but a few.

11. Blind Destiny Qualifier: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Michael Elgin (w/Truth dressed as a gay pirate). Strong out to watch AGAIN three minutes in. Elgin wins a good 12 minute match. Davey came out to fend off Strong at the very end. Elgin used the spinning sitout powerbomb. O’Reilly wasn’t as over as last month. The crowd finally got tired during this match.

Davey cut a promo telling Elgin that the House of Truth needs Elgin more than Elgin needs them. Said Elgin will hopefully realize that after their match in Florida. This is off TV. He puts Kyle and Elgin over as the future. Then does the “love me or hate me” bit, since he had a lot of haters this night. Davey does refer to his team with O’Reilly as Team Ambition again. Show’s over!